The Client:
An International Law Firm

The Challenge:
After a chance meeting with the Head of Training and Knowledge Management at the London office of the firm, The Influence Business was asked to deliver a programme to fill a 2-hour slot on the final afternoon of the firm’s European M&A and capital markets practice group conference in Brussels. Delivered to approximately 100 lawyers from its European and Middle Eastern offices ranging from trainees up to partners, the programme had to be commercially relevant in order to complement the legal training. The challenge for The Influence Business was to both inform and entertain the audience in the traditional ‘graveyard slot’.

The Delivery:
Led by Managing Director Jack Downton and with support from Actor Associate Marianne O’Connor, The Influence Business delivered a lively 100 minute interactive programme on ‘Being the speaker they want to hear’.  Not only did the presentation address how to engage with an audience, but it did so by demonstrating the behaviours and skills required throughout, addressing topics such as the use of PowerPoint slides and effective speaker notes. During the delivery, the audience were involved in a safe and unthreatening manner, with video clips shown to highlight examples of both good and bad speakers. The programme was designed to encourage the audience to think about the successful skills and behaviours required of themselves, rather than just being told the key factors to improving their presentations.

The Feedback:
The feedback from those in the audience was extremely positive and a senior partner, due to present to the lawyers following The Influence Business, was so conscious of how his presentation might be received in the light of our programme that he decided to forgo his PowerPoint slides altogether.

After the conference in Brussels, the Head of Training and KM emailed across the following:

“Whilst I haven’t seen any written feedback, the on-the-day feedback was all very good. So much so, it has been suggested that I ask you whether the three of you might be able to return and do a similar session at the European partners’ Summer meeting.”